8 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
common birds from the monuments are most peculiar. Hven so 
striking a species as the Flamingo has only a very few times 
come to our notice, and the adult Pigeon has not been seen at 
all. There is a common sign—T C HA—that shows a nestling bird 
sprawling on its breast, beating its naked wings, and clamouring 
with wide-open mouth. We now suggest this is a young Pigeon. 
(A writer on the Egyptian origin of the alphabet actually called 
this bird a Duck!—‘ Recueil de Travaux,’ tom. 23, p. 154.) 
Adolf Erman certainly called the UR sign—meaning “ great,” 
“old,” and the like—the Dove; other Hgyptologists have 
thought that it was a Sparrow, and the general opinion seems 
to lean towards the Swallow, but after comparing a good many 
examples we are inclined to believe that it cannot be anything 
else than the Pratincole (Glareola pratincola), still a common bird 
in Egypt. 
Our first figure was held by its discoverer to be that of a 
Pelican, a finding with which few ornithologists are likely to 
agree. It was found at Hierakonpolis, and belongs to a period 
termed by Prof. Petrie ‘‘ Dynasty O’’—that is, the one previous 
to the so-called First Dynasty. The date would thus be before 
B.c. 4400. The figure (fig. 1) is a sort of “statuette” of green 
glazed ware, and is figured photographically and in line in 
Quibell’s ‘ Hierakonpolis,’ vol. i. pls. xxi. and xxii. Many other 
birds possess crests, but as the Common Fowl was peculiar in 
the possession of wattles, it is easy to understand how the artist 
insisted on figuring these to give character to his model, and we 
cannot be far wrong in thinking that this old artist or potter was 
inspired by the Common Fowl and by no other bird. In passing 
we may say that all the pre-dynastic remains found in Egypt are 
made after Asiatic archetypes. 
The second example belongs, curiously enough, to much the 
same period and to the same neighbourhood—Abydos, on the 
west side of the Nile, opposite Thebes. Some years ago there 
was a find of several “‘ slates,” with pictures relating to battles 
fought at or before the united monarchy under Menes in B.c. 4400. 
The known examples were described and well figured by Mr. F. 
Legge in the ‘ Proceedings’ of the Society of Biblical Arche- 
ology, vol. 22, pp. 125-89 and 270. Reference may be made to 
the accessible ‘History of Egypt,’ by Dr. E. A. Wallis Budge 
